Zebra Technologies (Nasdaq:ZBRA) who provides real-time visibility into organizations’ assets, people and transactions, and American Barcode and RFID Inc. (AB&R), an integrator that drives efficiency and productivity in the supply chain, today announced the signing of a commercial agreement to use Zatar, Zebra’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform. Zatar is a cloud-based, multi-sensor integration IoT platform for connecting legacy and smart devices, such as iBeacons, printers and RFID to the Internet that enables third-party applications to easily work with the devices over an open source API.

“With Zatar we can enable new capabilities and business models which offer our customers the flexibility required in today’s market place,” said Mike Stryczek, CEO of AB&R. “Through this agreement we now can offer our customers a new range of services which include “pay as you use” and real-time monitoring and management of devices via Zatar.”

Automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) is a fundamental building block of IoT and having a platform that supports sensor technologies and AIDC are keys to the adoption of IoT.

“Zatar is a simple and powerful IoT solution that is easy for organizations of any size to implement and operate, even as more devices and collaborators are added to the platform,” said Phil Gerskovich, senior vice president of New Growth Platforms for Zebra Technologies. “We are excited that AB&R, a long-time Zebra partner, has selected the Zatar enterprise IoT platform to enhance the experience for their customers and address tasks that are historically time consuming and expensive.”

Stryczek added, “With Zatar, we can now gain real-time visibility to the performance and status of our customers’ specialty printers and ensure they get the necessary support quickly. In the near future, we will explore other areas Zatar can be deployed to create a truly connected and smart AIDC enterprise.”